As has been discussed at great length previously, it is important that users of the build system be freed from remembering many command-line arguments or special steps that must be taken to build a given piece of software. With several modules to configure and build, there is a lot to know about compiling VR Juggler. Most modules have external dependencies, the paths to which must be specified using command-line arguments. Furthermore, some modules may be compiled differently based on configuration-time settings. The so-called “global build” manages all of this, and so it has the responsibility of reducing the amount of information users must remember.

To that end, the global build offers some features for remembering command-line arguments so that users do not have to. Many of the configure scripts for the individual modules are written such that the default values for arguments are reasonable enough that users rarely have to pass them. The combination of these two features usually allows the typical developer to run the global configure script with no arguments. While this is not always the case (for example, on Win32, the path to NSPR must be specified unless the user has done something special in his or her environment), it happens often enough to keep people reasonably happy.